There has been much speculation as to why astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore have been stranded on the ISS for nine months. Rumours of political meddling, funding issues, and more have been attributed to the failed rescue. However, NASA has now spoken about what the real reason behind the trapped astronauts is.
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It appears that NASA made the decision to leave the astronauts up there for so long due to financial constraints. Their budget of $30 billion in 2024, although seemingly huge, actually couldn't stretch to another mission.
They apparently considered bringing the current capsule down early or adding a mission, but the numbers didn't add up. "We ruled them out pretty quickly just based on how much money we've got in our budget," Ken Bowersox, NASA's associate administrator for space operations, said.
Musk tried to put a political spin on it by saying that Biden delayed the rescue. He claimed that they didn't want Trump to look good before the election. However, NASA disagreed. "I can tell you unequivocally, from a personal standpoint, that politics has not played any part in this decision. It absolutely has nothing to do with it," a NASA spokesperson said.
NASA Budget Spent Badly, Leaving Astronauts Trapped
Despite NASA having a large budget, an investigation into their spending revealed that they had wasted huge amounts of it. An investigation made by the Inspector General found "inappropriate use of award fees during periods of poor contractor performance for multiple NASA programs and since 2020 questioned more than $77 million of award fees NASA paid for the SLS boosters and engines contracts."
The report resulted in some serious repercussions. In three years, it "resulted in 34 indictments, 24 convictions, 14 suspensions, and 20 debarments, with over $7.7 million in civil settlement fines returned to NASA."
So, although NASA claims that it was budget constraints that left the astronauts trapped on board the ISS for nine months, it was their terrible spending that caused the shortage of money. Now, thankfully, they are due home within the week. But they will need serious medical care and plenty of rehabilitation after such a long stay in space.
